GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Fringillidae [535] 



Yamhill County) and remains until late August (latest date, September 

 2.8, Multnomah County). 



The rollicking song of the Black-headed Grosbeak is most frequently 

 heard in the cottonwood and willow-filled stream bottoms. There the 

 birds carry on their courtship, the showy males chasing each other or 

 driving the duller-colored females through the trees and over the tops of 

 the bushes, and there they build the flimsy structure that answers for a 

 nest when the brief courtship period is ended. The eggs are laid in May 

 and June, dates for those containing fresh eggs running from May n to 

 J ul 7 4- 



Lazuli Bunting: 



Passerina amoena (Say) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male: Upper parts bright turquoise blue, changing to greenish 

 blue, darker and duller on middle of back; wings with two white bars; breast and 

 sometimes sides brownish; belly white. Adult female: upper parts grayish brown, tinged 

 with blue on rump; back sometimes streaked; wing bars dingy; anterior lower parts 

 pale buffy, deeper on chest, fading to white on belly and lower tail coverts. Young: 

 like female, but without blue tinge on rump, and chest and sides usually streaked. 

 Male: length (skins) 5.01-5.54, wing 1.78-3.01, tail 1.07-2.. 2.7, bill .39-. 41. Female: 

 length (skins) 4.91-5.38, wing 2.. 59-1. 83, tail 1.00-1.31, bill .36-. 41" (Bailey) 

 Nest: A cup of plant fiber and grasses usually woven into a low bush or weed. 

 Eggs: 3 or 4, bluish white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern British Columbia, Alberta, and 

 Saskatchewan south to Lower California and central western Texas. Winters in 

 Mexico. In Oregon: Common summer resident and breeder in valleys of entire 

 State, least abundant along coast. 



EVER SINCE BAIRD (Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence 1858) first listed it from 

 Oregon, at The Dalles, the brightly colored little Lazuli Bunting has 

 attracted the attention of ornithologists, who have recorded it many 

 times. A study of our notes and those of the Biological Survey show it to 

 be a common summer resident of all of eastern Oregon, except the highest 

 mountains, and an equally abundant resident of the Rogue, Umpqua, and 

 Willamette River Valleys west of the Cascades. Along the coast it is 

 much less abundant, although it becomes noticeably more common along 

 the Coquille River and the streams of Curry County southward. 



It is a bright-colored little inhabitant of the rose thickets and willow 

 growths sitting on the topmost twig to utter its pleasing song. It 

 usually arrives in May (earliest date, April 2.4, Douglas County) and re- 

 mains until early September (latest date, September 9, Multnomah Coun- 

 ty), being present in numbers only from May to early September. After 

 mid-June it becomes much less evident, due to the cessation of the song 

 period and to the ranker growth of vegetation that serves as cover for 

 its feeding operations. 



The eggs are laid about mid-June, the dates for three nests located by 



